Friday, September 25, 2015

Thought for the Day

As delivered at BBC Radio Bristol an hour ago:

I was once a member of a small theatre company. One warm up activity was a trust exercise. Can you fall backwards trusting that I will catch you? Can you stay absolutely rigid, without cheating and looking round?

It introduces the whole concept of trust, essential in drama. Will the other actor enter when they are supposed to? And get their lines right?

Life involves trust. This week's main stories have been about breaches of trust. Will my VW (yes folks I have a VW diesel) really be low emission? Will the holiday company keep my details private? Will the medical test be carried out competently?

In church we often use the word trust. The minister will ask people to affirm their faith - to say what they believe. One standard reply is:

This is our faith.
We believe and trust in one God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

To be a Christian, a follower of Jesus, it is not enough simply to believe. I must act on that belief. Trust.

I believe that putting my trust in God is to trust the one who is absolutely trustworthy. I believe that putting my trust in people is to take the risk that, from time to time, we will all act in an untrustworthy manner. Maybe through negligence, perhaps weakness or even our own deliberate fault.

And the trick, if trick is the right word, is to trust again. Of course we can all make a judgement to withdraw our custom, find other friends or change our car. If we want to. But we can also forgive. Accept that occasionally people will make mistakes. If we don't, we expect higher standards of others than we do of ourselves.